This opinion analyses the Commission's Communication "Breaking the cycle of child poverty - strengthening the European Child Guarantee". It addresses the strengthening of the European Child Guarantee as a child-centred, rights-based instrument to break intergenerational cycles of poverty and social exclusion. It recommends reinforcing access to quality parental employment and affordable and high-quality early childhood education and care, while ensuring that vulnerable groups are not excluded from essential services.
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The EU emissions trading system (ETS) is the key policy tool for achieving the EU's climate targets. The existing ETS (ETS1) aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industrial and energy installations, aircraft operators and maritime transport by setting a price on carbon through a cap-and-trade system.
The Commission's ETS revision proposal is expected to address several issues, notably the role of carbon dioxide removals, the expansion of the current scope to additional sectorsand GHGs not yet covered by the ETS, new rules on how to account for non-permanent carbon capture and utilisation, and the risk of carbon leakage in sectors not covered by the carbon border adjustment mechanism.
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Exploratory opinion at the request of the European Commission, in the context of the implementation of their Financial Literacy Strategy. The opinion considers that organised civil society is in a privileged position to improve financial literacy, due to their local networks and expertise with different groups of the population. The opinion also makes specific policy recommendations to the European Commission and Member States to potentiate their impact.
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Download — EGSZB-vélemény: The role of civil society in improving financial literacy
Download — EGSZB-vélemény: A rural proofing tool to unlock the full potential of rural areas and communities through better rural-centred EU policymaking for a fair and sustainable EU
In this opinion, the EESC stresses that intergenerational fairness must be made a cross-cutting principle applied to all EU policies and all age groups, with specific and ongoing attention paid to people in vulnerable situations. It recommends that the Commission ensure that the implementation of the strategy explicitly takes into account that its central objective is to reduce social, economic, gender, age and territorial inequalities between generations, and to strengthen solidarity and social cohesion across generations to achieve democratic, resilient, inclusive and sustainable societies. The strategy should set long-term objectives with specific and measurable targets and indicators, clear accountability mechanisms, and arrangements to make intergenerational fairness a formal part of all EU policies.
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